Wall Street Journal Launches Personal Journal

Posted on April 12, 2002

The Wall Street Journal has added new content and features to its popular business newspapers, including the use of color on the front page. The Journal is also adding a new section, Personal Journal, which will appear Tuesday through Thursday. The Personal Journal section includes some content that is not strictly business. Some of the topics covered will include personal finance, healthcare and family concerns, travel, consumer electronics and automobiles.

The changes took nearly four years of planning and more than $225 million in capital investment to increase page and color capacity. The Journal's daily page capacity has increased from 80 pages to 96. Of these, 24 pages are color-capable, up from eight pages.

The Wall Street Journal says the new elements will help guide readers to the news, commentary and analysis that is most important to them. The Journal also stated that the addition of editorial color will help to convey news, information and graphics in a more usable and easily read format.

Commenting on the changes, Peter R. Kann, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and chairman and CEO of Dow Jones & Company, said, "Today's announcement represents the most exciting collection of changes that The Wall Street Journal has seen in many years. However, some things never change. We will continue to uphold the highest standards of accuracy, honesty and fairness for which The Wall Street Journal is known and respected across the country and around the world. For years, we've referred internally to this effort as `Project 2002.' For The Wall Street Journal, 2002 begins today."

Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, said, "We are incredibly excited and proud to offer these changes to readers. Today's Wall Street Journal is the culmination of years of planning and preparation by hundreds of people. I have no doubt that today's Journal will be even more informative and valuable to our current readers, while reaching an even broader audience of people who are interested in both business news and news that affects their daily lives -- `business and the business of life.'"

Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal is the leading global business newspaper. In addition to the U.S. print edition, Dow Jones & Company publishes The Asian Wall Street Journal, founded in 1976 and edited in Hong Kong; The Wall Street Journal Europe, founded in 1983 and edited in Brussels; and The Wall Street Journal Online founded in 1995. The print and online editions of The Wall Street Journal have a total paid circulation of more than 2.6 million.

Modest design changes were also made to the Asian Journal and the Journal Europe to harmonize the look of the three newspapers. Additionally, the online edition of the Journal was redesigned and enhanced in January.